The Senators scored three power-play goals to edge the St. Louis Blues 3-2 at Scotiabank Place in front of just 16,063 onlookers.

It was the first time since last March 17 that the Senators scored three times with the man advantage.

After the Senators squandered a two-goal lead defenceman Chris Phillips scored, at 10:29 of the third period, to extend Ottawa’s winning streak to a season-high five games.

“(Winning five straight) is hard to do these days,” said captain Daniel Alfredsson. “You try to just keep the momentum going, keep working hard and give yourself a chance every night. It’s not going to last forever, but we’re going to try and keep it going.”

When asked if he should be a power-play regular, Phillips said with a smile: “They’ve gotta take a look at it.”

“We just kept it simple,” said Senators coach Cory Clouston. “It’s nothing different than we’ve been trying to do. We just executed better. We’ve got a few guys back, which helps, but we made good reads and good execution.

“When you’re moving the puck better, you are executing and making the right pass.”

Peter Regin and Milan Michalek, returning from a seven-game absence, scored the other Ottawa goals. Regin, Alex Kovalev and Alfredsson each had two assists.

“We’ve played better lately on the power play,” said Regin. “It’s tough when you’re not getting any goals, everybody is talking about it and I think you start squeezing the sticks a little hard. We just had to relax and that really helped us.”

Elliott sharp in third

Goalie Brian Elliott, making his third straight start, had to be sharp in the third and made 27 stops.

Anton Volchenkov left the game in the third with a upper-body injury. But Clouston said the defenceman should be good to go for Saturday’s 1 p.m. game in Boston against the Bruins.

The Senators blew a 2-0 lead, with Brad Boyes tying the game only 30 seconds into the third.

The Senators held a 2-1 lead after 40 minutes on the strength of Michalek’s goal at 10:59 of the second. Michalek took a Regin pass in the slot and fired a wrist shot past Chris Mason on the stick side.

“I got a goal and we got the win, so I’m really happy about it,” said Michalek. “I think for most of the game, we played really good.

“Our power play was really good. That was the key.”

Despite outshooting the Blues 15-7 in the second, the Senators gave up a goal to Eric Brewer at 18:53 to make this a nailbiter going into the third.

‘Really good job’

“You take out about five minutes of that game and I thought we did a really good job,” said Clouston. “There was a real short period of time where we kind of lost our game.”

Getting more ice time with Jason Spezza sidelined, Regin continued to be a key on the attack. He scored at 18:09 of the first when Kovalev’s attempted pass deflected off his skate into the net.

There was no need for the officials to go upstairs, but they did have to look at what David Perron thought was a tying goal at the buzzer. The red light never came on and the video review clearly showed the clock had expired.

“It’s really good the way we’re winning games. It really is a team effort each and every night,” said Phillips. “We’re playing the system and doing the basics. It’s not about going out and being flashy and going end-to-end with the players we have.

“We’re sticking together and chipping away. We’re on a roll now, but we haven’t pulled ahead of anybody. It’s just going to get tighter and tighter.”